Is an Apple-Sun merger in the works? — Commentary: Why Apple really put Google's Schmidt on board — BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) — As soon as Google CEO Eric Schmidt was named to the board of directors at Apple some mild speculation ensued suggesting that he'd eventually become CEO of Apple.

Man From Google Joins Apple's Board — When Eric E. Schmidt, Google's chief executive, was named to Apple Computer's board this week, it did more than signal a potential alliance between powerful companies. It touched off a wave of speculation about the motives of the man behind the move: Apple's co-founder, Steven P. Jobs.

Google: These books are free — Google Book Search now offers PDF files of scanned books that can be downloaded and printed for free, Google announced on Wednesday. — Readers can find the books by choosing the "Full view books" option on the Google Book Search home page before they activate their search.

Films That Come Over the Net Don't Come Easy — Several obstacles — meager libraries, frustrating download times, copyright issues — have hamstrung online movie offerings to date. But the biggest challenge has been what those in the industry refer to as the "last 10 feet" problem.

RIAA copyright education is contradictory, critics say — The music industry's educational video about copyright law is full of baloney, according to several trade and public interest groups. — The Consumer Electronics Association and Public Knowledge are among the groups to issue …

Google Sued for AdSense Fraud — A would-be AdSense customer is suing Google for $250,000 because it took her 100 hours to place and review AdSense advertisements on her Web site, which Google subsequently removed, Google Watch has learned. — In a 25-page complaint filed earlier this week …

Faces.com stands apart in social networking — Faces.com is a social networking site from Australia with an emphasis on multimedia sharing and an impressive feature set. The site has been up for several years but has recently undergone a total rebirth and is looking quite good.

Cheatsheet: What is Digg? — "When I'm talking to clients," a seemingly well-informed Google employee told me over brunch, "I want to mention Digg. I know it's something I'm supposed to know about, but I don't." No worries. For everyone who needs a refresher on Digg, we have an exhaustive cheatsheet for the popular site.

A Closer Look At the PSP GPS Device — We have a closer look and more details on the PSP GPS Addon we saw last week. The GPS goes on top of your PSP and can actually be folded down when not in use, making your PSP a little less bulbous. We're not sure whether folding it will disable it …

Meet two upstanding enemies of all that is splogging. — First Ian Kallen, who knows more about splogging than anybody else I've met; and who has provided much useful guidance for me, as both as a writer and a reader in the blogosphere. Lately Ian and I have been talking more about what constitutes …

Are Social Web Apps Here to Stay? — In Why I Don't Use Social Software, Ryan Carson of Vitamin magazine (where I published The MySpace Problem), asks some tough questions about the rise of social web apps. The biggest question is: Are social web apps here to stay?

Journalists sued over iPod story — A CHINESE court has frozen the personal assets of a reporter and an editor at a Shanghai newspaper after Apple iPod manufacturer Foxconn sued the pair for 30 million yuan (US$3.77 million) for allegedly damaging its reputation over reports of substandard work conditions.

Apple Sends a NastyGram — We just got an email from Apple regarding a YouTube video reposted on CrunchGear: … Ian, it a YouTube video. That's at www.youtube.com. Get them to take it down if it's a violation of your IP and it will stop showing at crunchgear and the other sites.

Guba takes a gamble: affiliate payments for free accounts — Video site Guba, one of the most interesting players in the space, has released an affiliate program that will pay you 25 cents for every new free (US based) account resulting from a clickthrough of an embedded video on your site.

Results from the 2006 Desktop Linux Survey - Part 1 — Results from the 2006 Desktop Linux Survey - Part 1 — The results of DesktopLinux.com's 2006 Desktop Linux Market survey are in, and the votes are all tallied. This first article of a series offers a perspective on how the various desktop Linux distributions fared, and why.

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